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Photos of old Hong Kong

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Here we bring together the photos of old Hong Kong that are hosted on this site, and links to other collections.

Gwulo - Photos for sale

If you'd like to buy a photograph of old Hong Kong for yourself, or as a gift, we have a catalogue of photos suitable for framing. Click here to see the Catalogue. All orders include free shipping worldwide, and your money back if you are not satisfied.

Digital copies are available too, for you to use in your own creative projects (event backdrops, brochures, printed materials, etc). Please contact me for details of licencing:

Gwulo - Photos for browsing

Most photos here are not for sale, but they are great for browsing. We have over 3,500, so there are lots to see. If you know what you are looking for you can:

Search by location - Use our photo map of Hong Kong to choose the building or area you are interested in, then see what photos we have that show them.

Search by decade - Visit the galleries to find photos grouped by decade, from the 1860s to the present day.

Or if you like surprises, just click the photo on the right (see 'Random Photo'). That will show you a larger copy of the photo, some information about it, and ... a new Random Photo!

The Hong Kong Public Records Office offers an online catalogue to their 'Archives for Still and Moving Images'. There are over 8,000 images in the archive.

The Hong Kong Public Library also has a good online search for old photos. The photos can be viewed and downloaded in high-resolution (though with the library's logo on the picture), which means they can be cleaned up well in an image editor. [3-Oct-2008: For me this site only works with Internet Explorer, not Firefox. When you click the link you should see a search screen. If you don't, check the opening hours as the service closes at different times for maintenance.]

Hedda Morrison took several hundred photos of Hong Kong in 1946-7. Over 300 of these photos have been scanned at high-resolution and placed online in Harvard University's VIA system. VIA's viewer allows you to zoom in to see a high level of detail.To see the photos: - Visit the Via website at: http://via.lib.harvard.edu/via/deliver/advancedsearch?_collection=via - In the "Search for: " section, type hedda morrison in the first box and hong kong in the second. Choose Place from the second drop-down list. It should look like this:

- Click the 'Search' button - You should see "Search results: 1 to 15 of 309 hits from the search hedda morrison in (Anywhere) and hong kong in (Place)", followed by a list of photos - Click any photo to see its 'Full record' - On the Full record page, double click the image to open the viewer, which lets you zoom and pan around the image. - NB if you want to give someone a link to one of these photos, don't just use the url shown in your browser when you're viewing the photo. When you try to view it later, you'll just see an error. Instead you need to double-click the thumbnail to see the full record, then look for the link 'Bookmark this item'. That's the link you can share that will work reliably in future.

The St Georges School website has a gallery of photos of Kowloon believed taken in the 1960s.

I was brought up in Hong Kong in the 60s and went to the Peak School and KGV. These photos were mostly taken by myself on a Kodak Instamatic and Olympus OM10 between 1969 and 1987. A few other photos were given to me and some slides were bought from a street vendor in the late 70s. I hope you enjoy this bit of nostalgia as much as I did compiling it.

If you know of any other sites with good photos of old Hong Kong, please add a comment below with the details.

Comments

Have fun! most seem to be taken immediately after the war though there's a number from 1948/49. some great shots of the city, happy valley, repulse bay, ruins etc. Also there's a great shot of Jimmy's Kitchen in theatre lane still bricked up against air raids.

In the original article I mentioned John Thomson, and linked to a gallery's website with a handful of his photos.

The Wellcome library has a much better collection - over 100 photos of Hong Kong from this period. Well worth a look. (Clicking an entry in the list will show you a thumbnail and some background information. Click the thumbnail to see a larger version.)

The Pathe Films are a valuable historical resource archive. The only problem is it is cumbersome to use as each download of free film preview is preceded with registration and personal information. One has to accept this as downloading of flim or newsreel are only meant for private use. Beware that some films have no audio and that there is nothing wrong with your speakers.

A problem I had some time back was after I had updated my Windows Media Player to a newer version, my computer lost the function to view the films that were previously downloaded and so I had to spend a greater part of my time going over the archive and re-doing the process. Cheers.

I was having a quick surf on the web earlier and came across a great Flickr website.

Someone has gone an obtained loads of old photos of Hong Kong and then gone through a lot of trouble to find the exact place and vantage point of the original and taken a modern snap. They are quite accurate.

I've wanted to do the same with some of the old photos from the war, but this fella has done a grand job.

I recognise one photo that is on Gwulo, the photo of a Pillbox and ARP's outside near Pacific Place and Admiralty taken in about '41.

You can see lovely looking old buildings which have been replaced by ugly concrete and glass. Some of the old buildings that have been demolished is nothing short of criminal, but because some greedy landlord rather have a 30 story office block they have been flattened..... who needs history when you have a fat wallet?

Hi Craig, I did give him a mention on the page about HK & Flickr, but he's well worth highlighting again. Apart from the quality of his photos, it's also amazing how quickly he gets them finished. I've bookmarked plenty that I'd like to add here, but can't keep up! If anyone sees one they'd like to share here, please go ahead and add it.

I recently received an email from Peter Moss, linking to his photo albums. There are several that contain photos of Hong Kong:

Wind from the North. Photos from the 1967 disturbances, with many taken along the border with China.

The drowning of Plover Cove. Photos of the Plover Cove area after the sea had been drained away, but before the new reservoir was filled with fresh water. Also several photos taken around Port Shelter and Silverstrand Bay.

The photos are sharp, the comments below them are interesting, and the name seemed familiar. Then I clicked through to his website, and all became clear - he's the author of many of the glossy Form Asia photo books I've browsed through in local bookshops. Fingers crossed we'll hear more from Peter.

Unfortunately the link to Harry's website no longer works, and I can't find any sign of his new website on the internet. They are great photos, so Harry, if you read this please could you let us know your new website? Or if you need a new home for your photos, we'll be very happy to host them here.

Regards, David

Harry Marshall has several photos of Hong Kong in the 1950s (click on the thumbnails along the right for a larger version of the picture and background information). His introduction begins:

During the British National Service years I was stationed in Hong Kong from 1954 to 1957. Initially I was one of the R.E.M.E. personnel attached to the 27th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment at Stanley Fort on Hong Kong Island. Then followed a short period on Stone Cutters Island before I was finally transferred to the R.E.M.E. workshop in Shamshuipo. Repatriation came in July 1957, and I was sorry to leave. Hong Kong I mean, not the Army! I couldn't wait to get out of the bxxxxy Army! — But I had fallen in love with Hong Kong.

That includes all the photos uploaded here, and the photos we've linked to on Flickr. It doesn't include any photos pasted straight into text, so the total number of photos visible on the site is even higher.

Many thanks to every one who has taken the time to upload photos here or on Flickr. Next stop 5,000 ...

It was common knwledge that the US sailors had better cameras and gear than their Royal Navy counterparts - primarily due to the wage disparity between the navies, with Jack Tar coming in a lowly fourth in line after the Canadians, Americans, and Aussies.

I can especially recommend the shots taken by George Hofius and Scott Martin (who runs the site). George has an excellent shot of Government House which he took from the top of the Hilton Hotel - and one of the Colonial Secretariat Building just below it. He also has a shot of the site of the old Foreign Correspondents Club on Conduit Road where scenes for "A Many Splendored Thing" were filmed.

Also, a shot by Don Holloway (50's #25) will show you the HKFC Stadium looking east - showing the line of HKG houses that used to line Wongneichong Road.

I think Scott Martins photos are the best ones in existence of Wanchai in the '60s-I've never yet found any better ones (well, I took a few myself in '72, but not nearly as many as him). Too bad he doesn't keep that album on Flickr (or Gwulo!), where a lot more people might see his work.

Scott is the webmaster for USSDeHaven.org, so you could always drop him a line and make that suggestion. I agree with you about Wanchai during the 60's - he even got a shot of the China Fleet Club, which I never did in all the years I lived there. Several of the others in the DeHaven Photo Gallery uploaded business cards from all the Wanchai bars they frequented, including a letter to the ship's company inviting them in for a complimentary first drink. They don't do that anymore!

Phil's blog http://hongkongandmacaufilmstuff.blogspot.hk/ is a good example of how film stills are a source for photos of old Hong Kong. He's posted and identified stills from a bunch of different films and TV series, with a special interest in Kung-fu movies.